Ereshkigal’s War (Edge of the Splintered Galaxy Book 5), page 28
“Let me listen.”
On the projection, Saressea faced Finxos as he leaned against the pillar while holding his wound as roaring weapons blazed. Jainuzei’s men and Finxos’s security team were still shooting at each other. As Finxos spoke in his language, Saressea peeked up from her cover. There were a lot of dead bodies on the floor. She was running out of time. Jainuzei’s men were slowly gaining ground.
Foster saw Saressea lift the rifle, take a couple of shots at an unlucky Primate, shattering his shields, then duck to escape from the retaliating gunshots. She peeked from the side then vaporized the Primate’s left leg. Two soldiers from Jainuzei’s team raced over to drag the wounded Primate to safety. Neither saw Saressea peek from her cover again and vaporize them to ash. Their remains blew away when air from the ceiling vents touched them.
The whole stunt played out from Saressea’s point of view. It was like watching someone play those old first-person shooter video games Foster remembered from her teenage years. It was a bit out of character for Saressea. Yes, she was a member of Radiance’s navy, but combat was never her expertise, yet there she was, defending the minister with her life and taking down as many enemy combatants as she could.
“Hmm,” Odelea placed her finger on her chin. “According to Finxos, he received a message from his navy. They detected several ships entering the system. Hostile ships, I might add.”
A bead of sweat rolled down Foster’s face. She couldn’t believe how fast everything had gone to hell. She wished the Johannes Kepler had just stayed in FTL. Everything seemed peaceful so long as the ship was traveling through interstellar space. The instant the Kepler dropped out of FTL, trouble started. It made her wonder just how far Ereshkigal’s influence had spread throughout Omega Centauri.
“Is it Kur and its fleet?” Foster asked. Though she questioned why she even asked it. Foster knew damn well what it was.
Odelea spoke to the High Minister again via the link with Saressea, then listened to his reply. “No, the fleet belongs to a race known as the Bladebacks,” Odelea translated. “They’ve been converted to Ereshkigal’s cause and are here to support the cults in this system.”
“Great.” At least it isn’t Kur.
“We don’t want to be here when they arrive,” Odelea added. “According to Finxos, the Bladebacks are a fierce warrior race that evolved from a planet with poor living conditions and high gravity. Their physical strength is unmatched. Once they make landfall on Qurialla, its government will collapse.”
“How much time do we have, Odelea?” Foster asked.
“Approximately six hours.”
“The Bladebacks,” Williams said, “aren’t they one of the three members of this powerful Silyeos Alliance?”
“Correct,” Odelea said. “And the Amphibians of Qurialla are the second race. Should Qurialla fall, Ereshkigal will control two-thirds of the worlds colonized by the Silyeos Alliance.”
Foster grunted. “And they will chase us all day long . . .”
34 TETSUYA
Terraforming Tower Island
Deltris, Qurialla, Nudross System
February 25, 2122, 15:20 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Tetsuya and a wounded Chevallier ambushed a trio of Ereshkigal’s soldiers at the foot of the tower. The soldiers had lowered their guard when they saw Tetsuya, believing that he was just hauling a captured prisoner of war over. While Chevallier lay on the ground pretending to be dying from her wounds, Tetsuya shot the three soldiers with his beam rifle, disabling their shields. Before the trio could retaliate, Chevallier sat up like she was coming back from the dead, grabbed her assault rifle, and unleashed a steady burst of bullets in their direction.
Three bullet-ridden corpses collapsed back-first. Tetsuya offered his hand to Chevallier and pulled her up as she groaned from the pain in her shoulder. The two of them moved toward the tower with caution in their stride. They thought they were clear until a second group to the right of the tower appeared out of nowhere. He counted three, maybe five, cultist troopers donning multi-suits and wielding coil guns. One of them, an eight-foot Primate, held the biggest shoulder rocket launcher he’d ever seen.
The explosions that followed were loud enough to drown out the rampant French curse words Chevallier screamed. Most of the rockets propelled toward her, some hitting the tower when they missed Chevallier, others exploding near her feet. The heat from the exploding rockets destroyed what little shield power Chevallier’s armor had regenerated.
Most of the soldiers glared at Tetsuya in confusion. It didn’t look like they knew he was working with her. Not knowing what to do, the soldiers kept their weapons aimed at Chevallier. They probably figured he was still on their team and would assist. He still wore the team colors, after all. Since nobody was shooting at Tetsuya, he fired his beam rifle, aiming for the clustered soldiers not standing in cover. The rifle’s ion beams destroyed their shields with two or three shots, allowing Chevallier’s rifle to gore piercing holes through their armor or faces.
Tetsuya turned his weapon on the big guy with the rocket launcher, shattered his shields, then vaporized his face. As the ape-like man collapsed, Tetsuya scrambled to his corpse and rolled across the ground. Missed coil gun rounds tore up the concrete surface. As he came up from his evading roll, Tetsuya grabbed the rocket launcher, heaved the heavy device onto his shoulder, and then waited for his multi-suit to synchronize with it. And it did.
He aimed the rocket launcher at the remaining attackers then fired. Nothing but bits of flesh, bone, and metal fell from the skies when the smoke from the explosion cleared.
Now it was safe to approach the tower. What was left of it. Parts of it were on fire. The cultists had torn other sections of the tower to pieces, exposing the advanced technology inside it that was now flaring with white sparks. Ereshkigal’s forces tried to force themselves inside the tower to access its commands.
“I was right,” Tetsuya said, pointing out the tower’s damage to Chevallier. “They were trying to sabotage it. This was how other cities fell. They disabled the tower and let the radiation cook the population. If it wasn’t that, then it was the rods from orbit. They restored the shields when the people accepted Ereshkigal and threatened to disable the towers if they stepped out of line.”
Chevallier chuckled and spun away from the burning tower, facing him. “Let me guess, you helped them?”
He shrugged. “Didn’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
“Yeah, if you guys had taken me with you—”
And a barrage of plasma bombarded the artificial concrete island. Gunships loomed ahead and angled their plasma turrets at the two, looking up at the hovering vessels.
They were the same ships shooting at the Johannes Kepler not long ago.
35 LEBOEUF
Terraforming Tower Island
Deltris, Qurialla, Nudross System
February 25, 2122, 15:35 SST (Sol Standard Time)
LeBoeuf performed by far the longest jump port she had ever made. One moment she was running alongside Miles, Maxwell, and Karklosea, and the next blue light carried her forward. Moments later, she appeared on the island, right in front of Tetsuya Ishihara and Chevallier. Hovering above were gunships shifting their turrets to the tower. Or Tetsuya and Chevallier standing with weapons raised at it. She had no idea.
She erected a force field ahead of her. Two seconds later, the gunships opened fire and pelted her purple shimmering force field with balls of green plasma. Maintaining the psionic barrier was rough on her brain, but it saved Tetsuya, Chevallier, and the tower from a lot of problems. As LeBoeuf held her hands forward and forced her mind to strengthen the shield, Maxwell ran into the fray and pointed his psionic rifle at one gunship. A continuous stream of psionic plasma left his rifle and smashed into the gunship’s blue cocooning shields.
Miles and Karklosea stormed in from Maxwell’s left and right. The marine raised his assault rifle and held the trigger, its muzzle flaring rapidly. Tiny dots dinged off the gunship’s rippling shields. Karklosea, wielding her gunblade as a rifle, did the same. The gunship ascended to escape as its shields shattered. Rounds from Miles’s rifle pierced its hull, followed by Karklosea’s weapons.
The second gunship still had its shields active and its plasma turret blazing. Then there were the other gunships about to circle into the area. They weren’t in the clear yet, not by a long shot.
“Everyone, fall back,” LeBoeuf shouted. “I’m about to do something really fucking stupid!”
LeBoeuf waved her left hand to the side, and the barrier she had maintained faded away, allowing her to regain some mental energy and jump port onto the gunship, the one with its shields down. She reappeared from a streak of blue light and fell on top of the gunship’s hull. Her magnetic boots clung to its metallic surface. The winds scattered her hair as the vehicle swerved to aim at the team below. Down below, Karklosea activated her wrist-mounted shield, stood ahead of the group, and used it to repel the bursts of plasma and ion beams the two ships launched.
Reaching back, LeBoeuf pulled out a plasma grenade, and took careful steps toward the ship’s rear. Her HNI scanned and displayed in her vision what it predicted was the gunship’s thermal exhaust port. She grinned, thumbed the grenade’s prime button, then tossed it inside the circular-shaped hole.
LeBoeuf looked ahead and eyed the second gunship as its blazing turrets rained plasma onto the group below. “Maxwell, take down the shields of this ship, my target,” LeBoeuf transmitted over HNI.
She relayed her scanned tactical data to his HNI, highlighting the ship in her augmented vision.
While running to escape the plasma bombardment, Maxwell zapped the second gunship with psionic plasma. LeBoeuf took aim and did the same, and two lines of psionic plasma shattered the second gunship’s barrier. With its shields down, LeBoeuf jump ported on top of the second gunship, let her magnetic boots cling to its hull, and steadied her balance. The sky brightened suddenly, and she felt a wave of heat sear her skin. The first gunship had exploded. She threw up a psionic barrier around herself, and its protective power kept the heat, bits of slag, and shockwaves away from her. The remains of the destroyed gunship slammed into the ground. It burned pretty good and worked as cover for Miles, Chevallier, Tetsuya, and Maxwell. Karklosea opted to use her wrist-mounted shield powered by her psionic mind—
Ion beams soared above LeBoeuf’s head.
A third gunship armed with a beam cannon flew into the chaos and clued in on what LeBoeuf was doing. Its cannon angled to the side and fired white beam after beam at LeBoeuf, attempting to blast her off the gunship she stood on. A flick of her wrist blocked a beam intended for her chest by strengthening her psionic barrier. It took a lot of her mental energy to maintain the flickering purple barrier now, especially when a third and fourth ion beam shot her. LeBoeuf had to get off. But first . . .
LeBoeuf retrieved a second plasma grenade, thumbed its top button, and tossed it into the exhaust port. She jump-ported to the beam-firing gunship next. Too bad its shields were still active.
She repelled off the craft’s shields and slid down its smooth, blue spheroid shaped defensive barrier. The surface came into view as she slid off the ship. Miles, Chevallier, Tetsuya, Maxwell, and Karklosea looked like ants clustered near a burning gunship.
“Fuck!”
Gravity pulled LeBoeuf off the third gunship as the second exploded when her plasma grenade went boom. Falling back first, LeBoeuf raised her rifle and fired flaring lines of psionic plasma at the gunship. Maxwell did so at the same time, and the two took down the third gunship’s shields. She shut her eyes and allowed blue light to jump port her back up and on top of the last ship to the crashing sounds of the second gunship hitting the concrete.
Her magnetic boots activated once more and allowed LeBoeuf to walk across the top of the gunship while she fetched a third plasma grenade, shoved it into the exhaust port, and gave the vessel the same treatment as the last two.
LeBoeuf jump-ported back to the surface as the gunship blew apart, its explosive blast behind fluttering her hair about. It made for an incredible look as she returned to the team. Behind, the remaining gunships about to enter the fray spun around and left. They knew a losing fight when they saw one. LeBoeuf sank to her knees seconds later. Her head felt like it was going to explode like the gunships. She couldn’t hear anything, just a high-pitched noise, a noise that soothed when that same voice she heard in Nereid’s head spoke. It felt nice. LeBoeuf wanted to thank the exotic alien voice for clearing her head up.
“LeBoeuf?” Maxwell asked, holding her shoulder.
LeBoeuf got back to her feet and slung her rifle over her shoulder. “I’m fine,”
“Miles to Kepler,” the marine said as a communication holo screen appeared ahead of his face. “We’ve secured the tower.”
A projection of Foster sitting on her captain’s chair appeared on the screen. “Nice,” she said. “Chevallier?”
“She’s alive thanks to some unexpected help,” Miles said. He glared at Tetsuya.
They all glared at Tetsuya.
“LeBoeuf, can you teleport everyone back to the Kepler?” Foster’s hologram asked her.
LeBoeuf shook her head no. “I’m honestly surprised I was able to pull off the stunt I just did. If I use my powers anymore, I’ll have an aneurysm or worse.”
On the holo screen, Foster scowled. “Gonna need everyone back, like now. EVE has an estimate on how many rods each satellite can fire before reloading.”
“And how do they reload them?” LeBoeuf asked.
“You see, that’s the interesting part.”
The holo screen before Miles changed into tactical data with EVE’s face appearing on the left half of the screen. “I scanned several ships approaching the satellites to resupply them with new tungsten rounds,” EVE said.
Tetsuya stood beside Miles and eyed the newly forged image of an orbital satellite and a small transport docking with it. The transport pulled away from the orbital seconds later and descended to the planet’s surface.
“I know where those ships are launching from,” Tetsuya said after studying EVE’s scanned data. “There are ammunition depots throughout Qurialla and maintained by Ereshkigal’s cult. Had to help them get a few of them up and running.”
Chevallier studied the data floating before Miles. “We shoot down those transports, and they can’t reload the satellites.”
“Impossible. They have ammo depots everywhere, all heavily guarded,” Tetsuya said. “In fact, they have more depots and transports than satellites, just in case someone tried something like that. You shoot down a transport, another will replace it right away.”
“Then we pop ‘em all,” Miles said.
Tetsuya faced him. “How, when you can’t leave the barrier around Deltris? If those ships launch outside Deltris, you’ll have to fly over to get in weapons range.”
“The RKVs will take down the Kepler long before we get that chance,” Foster replied.
“What if we get the Amphibians to help?” LeBoeuf suggested. “The ones still loyal to Finxos.”
“Maybe, but they got their hands full with Ereshkigal’s forces,” Foster said. “Then there’s the language barrier that only Odelea could break. And she’s busy translating the message Nereid received from another telepathic mind.”
“Hmm, is there a way we can replace the rods with duds?” Karklosea said.
“Not really. There’s no explosive payload, just pure tungsten,” Tetsuya said.
“Perhaps something other than tungsten? Like aluminum?” Karklosea folded her arms. “During the war with the Hashmedai, I led a unit that was nearly defeated when Imperials sabotaged our rangers’ magnetic rifles. They replaced the metal inside them with a weaker, softer metal.”
“Slick,” Tetsuya said. “I’ve got to remember that one.”
LeBoeuf had trained to use psionic rifles, which converted psionic power from the user into the energy the rifle discharged. She had little experience with guns that shot projectiles. However, to her understanding, Radiance magnetic weapons, like most weapons that fired projectiles commonly used in the galaxy, didn’t use clips or magazines. One just needed to put a chunk of metal inside it and let the rifle’s gears slice off a piece, then mold it into an appropriate-sized round for the shot. Put the wrong metal inside the gun, and it’d fire some crappy bullets, especially at the high velocities that weapons accelerate projectiles to nowadays.
“That could work,” LeBoeuf said.
“Indeed, and as I recalled, the Hashmedai placed aluminum in the rifles of the rangers in my unit,” Karklosea said. “Their bullets disintegrated upon contact.”
“Aluminum has an extremely low melting point.” That was Pierce speaking up from his station on the bridge. “If we craft aluminum rods that look like tungsten rods and trick the enemy into reloading the satellites with them . . . Hmm, yes. They’ll fire the aluminum at us, not realizing that their rods are vaporizing in the atmosphere.”
“The machine shop could make some,” Williams’s voice chimed in. “But not a lot. I don’t think we have enough aluminum on hand.”
“We just need enough aluminum rods inside the satellite above Deltris,” Foster said. “With it firing aluminum rather than tungsten, the Kepler would have more than enough time to escape, then enter FTL before the Bladebacks arrive.”
The roar of a ship ripped through the air, prompting LeBoeuf to lift her rifle to the sky. Miles, Maxwell, Chevallier, and Tetsuya did the same as Karklosea powered her wrist shield, gripped the gunblade, and stood in defense of the group.
The team lowered their weapons when the ship in the sky descended with its landing thrusters blazing and landing gear deploying.
It was the Johannes Kepler.
“Easy, guys! It’s just us,” Chang shouted from Miles’s communication screen. “I’m coming in for a landing. Am I okay to do that?”
